Provided by: tcllib_1.17-dfsg-1_all 
NAME
doctools::toc::structure - Doctoc serialization utilities
SYNOPSIS
package require doctools::toc::structure ?0.1?
package require Tcl 8.4
package require logger
package require snit
::doctools::toc::structure verify serial ?canonvar?
::doctools::toc::structure verify-as-canonical serial
::doctools::toc::structure canonicalize serial
::doctools::toc::structure print serial
::doctools::toc::structure merge seriala serialb
_________________________________________________________________________________________________
DESCRIPTION
This package provides commands to work with the serializations of tables of contents as
managed by the doctools system v2, and specified in section ToC serialization format.
This is an internal package of doctools, for use by the higher level packages handling
tables of contents and their conversion into and out of various other formats, like
documents written using doctoc markup.
API
::doctools::toc::structure verify serial ?canonvar?
This command verifies that the content of serial is a valid regular serialization
of a table of contents and will throw an error if that is not the case. The result
of the command is the empty string.
If the argument canonvar is specified it is interpreted as the name of a variable
in the calling context. This variable will be written to if and only if serial is a
valid regular serialization. Its value will be a boolean, with True indicating that
the serialization is not only valid, but also canonical. False will be written for
a valid, but non-canonical serialization.
For the specification of regular and canonical serializations see the section ToC
serialization format.
::doctools::toc::structure verify-as-canonical serial
This command verifies that the content of serial is a valid canonical serialization
of a table of contents and will throw an error if that is not the case. The result
of the command is the empty string.
For the specification of canonical serializations see the section ToC serialization
format.
::doctools::toc::structure canonicalize serial
This command assumes that the content of serial is a valid regular serialization of
a table of contents and will throw an error if that is not the case.
It will then convert the input into the canonical serialization of the contained
table of contents and return it as its result. If the input is already canonical it
will be returned unchanged.
For the specification of regular and canonical serializations see the section ToC
serialization format.
::doctools::toc::structure print serial
This command assumes that the argument serial contains a valid regular
serialization of a table of contents and returns a string containing that table in
a human readable form.
The exact format of this form is not specified and cannot be relied on for parsing
or other machine-based activities.
For the specification of regular serializations see the section ToC serialization
format.
::doctools::toc::structure merge seriala serialb
This command accepts the regular serializations of two tables of contents and uses
them to create their union. The result of the command is the canonical
serialization of this unified table of contents.
Title and label of the resulting table are taken from the table contained in
serialb.
The whole table and its divisions are merged recursively in the same manner:
[1] All reference elements which occur in both divisions (identified by their
label) are unified with document id's and descriptions taken from the second
table.
[2] All division elements which occur in both divisions (identified by their
label) are unified with the optional document id taken from the second
table, if any, or from the first if none is in the second. The elements in
the division are merged recursively using the same algorithm as described in
this list.
[3] Type conflicts between elements, i.e. finding two elements with the same
label but different types result in a merge error.
[4] All elements found in the second division but not in the first are added to
the end of the list of elements in the merge result.
For the specification of regular and canonical serializations see the section ToC
serialization format.
TOC SERIALIZATION FORMAT
Here we specify the format used by the doctools v2 packages to serialize tables of
contents as immutable values for transport, comparison, etc.
We distinguish between regular and canonical serializations. While a table of contents
may have more than one regular serialization only exactly one of them will be canonical.
regular serialization
[1] The serialization of any table of contents is a nested Tcl dictionary.
[2] This dictionary holds a single key, doctools::toc, and its value. This value
holds the contents of the table of contents.
[3] The contents of the table of contents are a Tcl dictionary holding the title
of the table of contents, a label, and its elements. The relevant keys and
their values are
title The value is a string containing the title of the table of contents.
label The value is a string containing a label for the table of contents.
items The value is a Tcl list holding the elements of the table, in the
order they are to be shown.
Each element is a Tcl list holding the type of the item, and its
description, in this order. An alternative description would be that
it is a Tcl dictionary holding a single key, the item type, mapped to
the item description.
The two legal item types and their descriptions are
reference
This item describes a single entry in the table of contents,
referencing a single document. To this end its value is a Tcl
dictionary containing an id for the referenced document, a
label, and a longer textual description which can be
associated with the entry. The relevant keys and their values
are
id The value is a string containing the id of the document
associated with the entry.
label The value is a string containing a label for this
entry. This string also identifies the entry, and no
two entries (references and divisions) in the
containing list are allowed to have the same label.
desc The value is a string containing a longer description
for this entry.
division
This item describes a group of entries in the table of
contents, inducing a hierarchy of entries. To this end its
value is a Tcl dictionary containing a label for the group, an
optional id to a document for the whole group, and the list of
entries in the group. The relevant keys and their values are
id The value is a string containing the id of the document
associated with the whole group. This key is optional.
label The value is a string containing a label for the group.
This string also identifies the entry, and no two
entries (references and divisions) in the containing
list are allowed to have the same label.
items The value is a Tcl list holding the elements of the
group, in the order they are to be shown. This list
has the same structure as the value for the keyword
items used to describe the whole table of contents, see
above. This closes the recusrive definition of the
structure, with divisions holding the same type of
elements as the whole table of contents, including
other divisions.
canonical serialization
The canonical serialization of a table of contents has the format as specified in
the previous item, and then additionally satisfies the constraints below, which
make it unique among all the possible serializations of this table of contents.
[1] The keys found in all the nested Tcl dictionaries are sorted in ascending
dictionary order, as generated by Tcl's builtin command lsort -increasing
-dict.
BUGS, IDEAS, FEEDBACK
This document, and the package it describes, will undoubtedly contain bugs and other
problems. Please report such in the category doctools of the Tcllib Trackers
[http://core.tcl.tk/tcllib/reportlist]. Please also report any ideas for enhancements you
may have for either package and/or documentation.
KEYWORDS
deserialization, doctoc, doctools, serialization
CATEGORY
Documentation tools
COPYRIGHT
Copyright (c) 2009 Andreas Kupries <andreas_kupries@users.sourceforge.net>